


Devotion for Love and Destruction

by ZabiHakuhei



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Tragedy, Awkward Romance, Body Horror, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, F/F, Graphic Description, Horror, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Sex, Past Child Abuse, Psychological Horror, Romance, Visceral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 08:20:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23468302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZabiHakuhei/pseuds/ZabiHakuhei
Summary: What has to happen in the life of a person to wish for the end of the world, what trials and tortures someone has to go through to think there's no hope left? This is the story of a creature who hopes for a bright future and a young child who hopes for oblivion.
Kudos: 1





	Devotion for Love and Destruction

The cries of a little child could be heard echoing inside an inhospitable cave that widens in countless tunnels, holding on her ankle and looking up into the walls for the small gap of light she fell from, a trip with her parents into the mountains suddenly turned into one of her worst experiences. The humid and earthly smell inside the cave was filling her lungs and small currents of fresh, cold water pouring in currents from the hole she fell, soaking her head and clothes, the little one screamed with desperation every time she sees the silhouette of one of her parents from above but it was all in vain, her face started to hurt, her eyes were burning and the muscles of her jaw were tense, and while the girl felt no one will save her from that situation, a couple of yellow eyes from the deepness in one of the tunnels made her shout louder, deafening screams.

“Mommy, daddy! There’s something here…! My leg hurts so much! Please!” She screamed her lungs away, a burning feeling tearing her chest apart in fear.

With the groans of an animal, the two yellow spheres were locked into her, observing her from left to right for several minutes without doing anything, then disappearing, in the same way they showed up. The little girl’s heart gave a leap when a decrepit woman wearing a torn and dirty dress and a veil approached while crawling in all fours, her arms and legs were bony, long, old and blue, her hair was black, messy and wavy, and from her back, there were another two limbs which looked like baby bird wings’ in leather without feathers. When the woman finally faces her, the girl closed her eyes from fear, she felt one of her cold hands caressing her face and exploded in one last attempt to scream, her voice broke in incomprehensible, croaky noises.

“Mo…mmy! …D-da…ddy! Help me… Help me!”

She struggled and put on a fight when the woman held one of her arms and pulled from it when she stumbled from the pain on her ankle, the woman mourned some words and picked her up in arms, the girl felt her soul was going to leave her body when she lifted her and saw the face inside the veil, it was like a skull, with tissues of muscles and skin tightly attached to the bones, those yellow eyes of a reptile and without eyelids, no nose, not even lips to cover her tiny and crooked teeth, the woman took her into the deep darkness, the small one losing all her strength, slowly realizing her predicament, she closed her eyes from exhaustion and when she opened them again, she found herself lying on an old bed of a fancy room lightened with candles.

The woman crawls in the stalls, loudly forcing her body to stand up with small sounds of pain, her fingers shake and makes everything she touches in one of the wooden shelves fall and break into pieces, her frustrated screech finally awakes the little girl and makes her quiver in fear again, shielding her body with the blankets of the bed, the woman kept babbling for a while, as if she were cursing, then finally took a bottle of glass and brought it with her to the bed, the liquid inside had a putrid smell, she dips one of her long fingers in it, pulled the blankets to aside and rubbed the scared girl with it, she cried feeling an awful stingy sensation coming from the lotion, the woman stands up and brings a box with clean and white tissues, then wraps her ankle carefully, the girl feels no longer in pain, but the fear doesn’t disappear when feeling the stare of her skull from the veil.

“Eeeh… Eeeehh,” The woman screeches rubbing her skinny neck with one hand and caressing the girl’s head with the other. One more time she goes to the shelves and picks up an even bigger bottle, removed the cork and chugged on it, it had a strong smell of rum, almost spoiled, she came back and tried to speak again, “Do…n’t… fret… I won’t… hurt you…”

The girl stared at her in silence for a while, the woman extends her left hand asking for hers, she replies slowly, trembling, the woman opens the palm of the girl with her long fingers “My… name…” She begins to screech, a finger from her right handwriting letters on the palm of the girl, – M-e-l-i-s-s-a – she put on her skin with heavy breathing, “Your… name…?” She reversed gestures and gave the girl her palm, the girl dries her face and breathes her snots back; her tiny finger started writing – C-h-l-o-e –.

Holding on her hand, Melissa guides the girl through a huge and creepy mansion immersed in the darkness, only illuminated by a candle on a plate she held, the little girl could still smell the humid of the caves, taking her into a kitchen resembling the one of an old fashioned restaurant, both being more composed, Chloe willingly sat on a chair as the woman started chopping and slicing things into a boiling pot in a stove, the smell of herbs and spices raising the child’s mood while Melissa hummed a song. She poured two bowls of soup and ate together with the girl a warm broth of onions and greens, the girl giggled from seeing the soup constantly drop out of the mouth of the woman from inside the veil, taking her twice the time of the child.

Back into the bedroom, Melissa took off Chloe’s clothes and dressed her with a nightgown ten times her size, carefully wrapping her in blankets and multiple small pillows on her head. She disappeared in the darkness of the shadows and came back minutes later with a book on her hands, she slowly sat near the child – The Ugly Duckling – written on the title, the lady tried to read her for her, but her voice broke over and over into awkward screeches no matter how much she tried, Chloe extended her hands and took the book from her, then started to read it, her voice was just as hurt and exhausted, the woman lied near her caressing her hair as she narrated the animal-tale.

“Do you like reading?” The girl asks with an acute tone, the lady nods, and screeches “Do you like The Ugly Duckling story?” She asks again, the woman shakes her head now, “What do you like to read?” Gesturing with a finger signaling her to wait, Melissa gets off the bed and goes into another trip into the shadows to come back with another book, the girl frowns just from trying to read the title written with golden letters, “As…tor… Astro… atrophy… I, I don’t know how to read adult books, sorry,” She sighed and handed the book back, the two giggled from each other’s reaction.

Falling asleep on that bed together with Melissa and waking up hours later, the woman wrapped her with the blanket against her will, carried her in arms like a baby out of the mansion, through a long and dark tunnel which guides her in a downhill road with flows of water from the rivers, the girl saw light again after an entire day of being secluded, the woman kept walking into the grass and bushes until they reached a dirt path, where Melissa placed her in the floor, turned back and without sharing a single sound, she left her there tied alone, “Melissa! Melissa!” Chloe cried confused about the woman’s actions.

“Melissa where are you?! Melissa, you are here don’t you?!” A girl shouts out loud as she wanders into a forest, jumping the bushes and handing on the branches of the trees, the agile kid leaps and runs with a small bag on her back and a smile on her face with a hole where teeth should be, “Melissa! Melissa!” She keeps yelling, almost singing, until she recognized a familiar dirt path, guiding her into the bank of a river which she followed in the opposite direction of the flow until reaching the opening of a cave, she put a foot inside but her smile worn off fast, trembling she took a step back, “Me..!” She tried to shout, but her voice broke from a sudden shiver, she tried again, “Melissa… Melissa! Can you hear me?! It’s me! Chloe! Can… Can you come out and play with me?! The cave is too dark and scary!”

Two hours later almost like answering her pledges, as the girl distracts herself scaring the tiny fish on the river by splashing the water with her feet, a woman in a long white dress and a veil comes out from inside the cave. “Chloe…? It’s you, how much you’ve grown!” The lady cheers with a sweet energetic tone, the little girl skips in the river and stumbles into the skeletal arms of the woman, embracing each other.

“You can talk now, you can talk now!” Chloe celebrates hearing Melissa’s voice for the first time.

“Yes, I thought you would come back, so I practiced to be able to talk again,” The woman giggles while explaining, Chloe can see with grimace yet faking bravery the vivid image of her skull through the white veil, her clothes were so much different from the last time, her dress was perfectly clean instead of the rags from before, decorated with frills and folds.

“Again you say?” The girl frowns confused, “You could always talk?”

“Yes, but when you spend all the time alone in a cave without anyone to talk to, you just…” Melissa stopped midway; then giggled, “Never mind that, look at you! You’re so tall now; I can’t believe you still remember me.”

“Hehe, I’m twelve now!” Chloe says with a smirk, yet surprised the thin lady by embracing her tightly from the waist, staying in silence for several minutes.

“Chloe…?” Melissa wonders caressing her hair.

“Of course I remember you… you’re the only adult who has taken care of me in these four years…” The little girl confesses with a tiny voice, shocking Melissa, who holds her face to find a sobbing Chloe, the woman guides her to the bank of a river and dips her hand on the water, cleaning Chloe’s tears as she quivers and drips on snots, “Melissa…” She mourned almost like begging, “Can I live with you?”

“So after all these years you came looking for me expecting we could live together, because you feel your parents don’t love you and no one notices you, is that right?” The lady asks after listening to Chloe’s rant, she nods with tight lips, looking down on the river.

“I promise I’ll be good Melissa, I brought clothes and my toothbrush, and some toys to don’t get bored!” The girl explains holding on her bag and shaking it, her expression moving from sadness to determination, “I will do everything you say, so please!”

“No,” Melissa replies short and simple, the girl gasps with an acute, heartbreaking tone from hearing those words, slowly breaking into a loud bawling which echoed louder and louder in the forest, the woman took the child on her arms and slowly rubbed her back, “I’m sorry, but here on the light you should have realized, I’m not like the adults you know, I’m not even a person,” She explains, the limbs on her back stretching as she talks, the pointy ends poking in Chloe’s face stopping her from crying and making her release some drowsy giggles, “I don’t know why you say that about your parents or your friends, or about any other adult, but there has to be someone who cares for you, Chloe, and I can’t take you from those who love you.”

“Why…” The girl holds softly on the limbs, her entire body shaking in frustration, “Why all adults are like this!” She screams in fury, getting away from her hands and picking up her bag, tears coming again from her eyes, still doing her best for her words to come out, “I thought you would believe me but nobody does! Nobody cares! My parents don’t love me, nobody does! Nobody cares that I exist!” Her tantrum is deafening, Melissa stares at her all the time with absolute composure, which only made the other angrier, squeezing her bag as if she were going to rip it off, she mourned a sentence which made Melissa gasp:

_“… I wish everyone in this world would die.”_

Melissa stood on a beat and scared Chloe who instantly covered her mouth in shame and shook her face, the lady approached her in silence and kneeled in front of her, “I can end this world for you if you want,” She held the child’s hands in her long fingers, Chloe breathing faster within the seconds, scared of Melissa’s words, the woman continued talking in her sweet, melodious tone, “I can tell you how to kill all the life in this world, if you want, I can show you what to do.”

“…No,” Chloe trembled horrified, pulled away from her hands and stepped back, her jaw trembling, “No!” She screamed and ran away inside the forest.

“Wow, what’s with this place? How did she even…” A girl shouts while thinking out loud, wearing hiking clothes and a backpack; a helmet and illuminating her surroundings with a lantern, she was impressed to find the giant structure of a cottage-style mansion merged with the rocks of a cave tens of meters deep from the surface, she placed the lantern on the floor and removed her gloves, then gulping down saliva, she knocked on the fancy wooden door, “Melissa… Melissa! Are you inside? This is your house, right?!”

Chloe opened uninvited, gasping a long and excited shout when seeing the interior. It was like a doll’s house, hundreds of candles illuminating the insides of furniture worthy of bourgeois from the old era; stalls of bookshelves replete with old and new editions of thick and complicated titled books, glassware with multiple of bottles of liquors of amber colors, the entrance was already a sight with its chandelier hanging on the ceiling, yet the house was divided into other two sections from left and right, and main stairs guiding to a first floor filled with rooms.

“Oh, you came…” A familiar voice mumbles surprised from the left room, the girl smiling from ear to ear, drops her bag and helmet and runs towards the voice, embracing the woman of the white dress with both arms, “Ouch! Chloe dear calm down! Please, I’m fragile.”

“Oh I’m sorry Melissa,” She snorts and pulls away slowly, fixing her long black hair with a huge smile, “You knew I was coming? I didn’t remember this place was so amazing!” She stretched her arms happily astonished of how packed every room was of luxurious furniture, curtains, and carpets, paintings and shelves.

“I thought you would come again, so I was getting things ready waiting for you,” The woman explains in her odd sweet tone.

“Waiting for me, but Melissa…” Chloe stops in her excitement and steps backs being filled in guilt, “That was seven years ago…”

“It felt like seven hours for me, dear one,” Melissa explains with a giggle, caressing her hair, “So, what brings you here again? Last time I made sure to scare you away but,” Her hand lowers down Chloe’s face, caressing her cheek, “Your curiosity has no satisfaction does it?”

The girl rested her face on the bony hand of the woman, in silence, she slowly tears up and Melissa wraps her on arms. Taking Chloe in the kitchen, astonished of how small the place looked compared to what she remembers, then she sits and narrates a long story of deception to the strange lady of a skull face, “Are you sure of what you say? My dear one,” Melissa asks serving a plate of sliced meat the girl brought on her backpack and that the woman broiled and seasoned for her, she then brought a large crystal bottle from near glassware and poured liquor on a glass for the girl.

“The moment I packed my things to leave that house and start living on my own, they confessed it to me,” The girl reaffirms her words with a nod and a sad tone, clumsy picking on the cutlery she was given, “What happened when I was eight wasn’t an accident, they thrown me through that tunnel, hoping that I would die,” Dipping a slice of meat on the sauce of the plate, she takes a small bite in doubt of the lady cooking skills’ but when savoring the flavor, she munches on the meat and sobs, “They wanted me to die… your food is so good…”

“It seems you keep coming here whenever things get too rough for you,” Melissa suggests with a serious tone, staring at the girl who tears up while devouring her plate, “Are you still planning to live with me?”

“I’m…” Chloe stops and slowly swallows, leaving the cutlery over the plate for a moment, “I tried to live my life as much as possible, but, nothing has changed, no one out there loves me, no one notices I exist, no one… No one has touched me in so long, until today… Even with your cold hands… it made me so happy,” The girl collapses; her voice breaks apart the more she tries to explain, her hands turned into fists as she holds on her face, groaning in frustration, rage, and sadness, “I, thought a-about you… e-every day…” Chloe raised her face, directly staring into the skull, “Please, please tell me what I have to do so I can kill all the life in this world,” Melissa released a silent gasp, she looked away, “Melissa, I know you weren’t lying that time, just what are you?”

“I’m…” The lady doubted for a second with a hand on her mouth, then continued, “I’m an angel, dear one, a fallen one,” She explains slowly, Chloe going mute with her words, “I’m the harbinger of the apocalypse, I was left here by one your people prays to so when I would see it necessary, I could bring the end into this planet.”

“… How long have you been inside this cave Melissa?” Chloe asks with tremble on her voice.

“Hundreds of thousands of human lives, dear one,” The lady replies caressing her skull.

“Then why… Why haven’t you done your job?!” The girl cries and slams the table, howling like a beast, “This world and the people on it should have died thousands of years ago! So why!?” She insisted, smashing the wood over and over.

“Because of people like you, Chloe,” Melissa tells now back to her sweet tone, immobilizing the girl from her words, “Because a broken heart like yours, wants for a better world more than it wishes for the end of it,” She stands and walks in front of the young, wrapping her arms around her head, “This world is filled with people who want and will do their best, to make this into a better place, that includes you, I’ve seen it so many times, the despair you carry is capable to make miracles and put smiles on everyone’s faces, I’m sure of it.”

“… That doesn’t have any sense!” The teen stands up anxious and scratching her hair, “Why you offered me to tell me how to do it if now you are going to bring me that?” Violently gesturing with her arms, Melissa remains serious and patient.

“Because I knew you wouldn’t have what it takes, no human does,” The lady replies her firmly and holds on her face, “My job is not to bring the end specifically, but to choose the right moment to, this world still has hope in it, a future with a light, and your wrath is not enough for me to cast the apocalypse.”

_“Try me”_

Guided by negative thoughts, the young girl forces her feelings into the angel until convincing her. Melissa took her into a room inside the first floor, a bathroom shaped taking into account the rocky wall of the cave and the flows of freshwater, all of it channeling into a porcelain tub with gold decorations and illuminated by crimson candles, the woman removed Chloe’s clothes and brought her inside the tub, then she joined the teen from behind, the freezing water of the cave running through the room is heated in a cauldron before reaching them, oils and flowers mixing in the steam and generating a sweet fragrance. “First of all, I need your blood,” Melissa explained with her long fingers caressing the naked shoulders of the girl, removing her veil and showing her monster-like teeth taking the shape of fangs, Chloe gulped down saliva, then closing her eyes she turned her neck to the angel, who bit on her in one thrust. “Ah…! Ahhh!” The teen screamed holding on her sides of the tub, dripping blood from her chest and getting mixed in the water like black ink, “It feels… so good!” She moaned surprising the angel, Chloe smiled with tears running from her eyes, feeling weaker within the minutes of Melissa sucking on her blood, the girl would look with confusion and drowsiness, that now a red-haired girl around her age was biting on her neck, but before she could ask anything, Chloe lost consciousness.

Two hours later she wakes up again on a familiar bed from her childhood memories, still naked and with leftovers of petals and oily perfume stick to her skin, another woman got inside the room as she was getting up, a young lady of red, wavy hair high on volume, naked just like her, carrying a plate with a teapot and cups, the girl smiles and stretches her body feeling tiredness, the girl on the other side of the room shivers when seeing Chloe flex her body, to the point the tray and the silverware she carries clinks, which makes the girl on the bed to snort. “Do you like what you see, Melissa?” She asks with a kinky tone and smirk, the other coughs embarrassed and serves a cup of tea, bringing it to her and sitting beside. “You’ll feel tired for a while, please drink this and rest, sleep as much as you need it,” Chloe silently took the cup, staring up and down to the angel’s naked figure, their hands almost touching let her realize the color of their skins, Melissa’s shoulders and nose were sprinkled in freckles, and the long and scary limbs on her back were now thick white wings shyly fluttering, as if they were eager to set flight, the angel stares at her with a warm smile as Chloe sips on the drink, then startles her when caressing her face, making her fluster, “You’re precious Melissa, I’m glad that you have always thought of me, but you don’t have what it takes to bring the end, no human does, and that's what I find so wonderful in your kind.”

“Even though you drank my blood, you continue talking in absolutes…” The girl whispers disappointed and leaves the cup over a night table, fixing her hair and crawling closer to the angel, closer to her touch, “I can take everything you throw me, I can show you I have what it take to end this world, my heart is filled with nothing but hate and resentment.”

“Living with hate and resentment is like drinking poison and hoping for the target of those feelings to die, dear one,” Melissa explains condescending, the girl frowns angry but the feeling of the hand on her face makes her purr like a cat, closing her eyes and rubbing her cheek against.

“Your hand is so warm now… I can get used to this feeling…” She slightly smiles, wrapping the arm of the angel with her over the chest, bumping closer until they’re face to face, “You look like a fairy tale and you smell so good...” Melissa releases a tiny screech as the girl rubs her nose with hers, slowly, tenderly, “You’re driving me crazy… is it because you drank my blood? I want to feel your warmth, even more, can I?” Her exciting breath filling the angel’s face.

“I-it is an effect of… drinking your blood, yes, but y-you need to learn self-restraint for the next step…”Melissa shivers as the girl continues to get bold and eager, leaning more and more her weight into the angel until their lips gently touch each other, Chloe giggling and pushing her against the bed, her hands holding on the shoulders of a now vivid red angel who covered her face and breasts in embarrassment and acute and short screeches, “Forget self-restraint! I’ve been thinking of doing this since you were an old ugly lady!” Chloe gasps in excitement and lust as the other squirms from her kisses.

“You still can back down, dear one, I don’t want to see you regretting on your decisions,” Back on her usual white dress and veil, Melissa suggests to the girl one last time, both of them inside of what looked like a torture chamber, Chloe was being held up on the hair by multiple bandages which moved with a life of its own, the cloth had inscriptions written in Latin and marked in blood, wrapping her hair, her eyes and arms, her thighs and feet, the angel silently walked to her and caressed her naked back and abdomen, “First you gave up on your blood, now you have to give up your spirit, your body will take a great toll from the pain you will experiment.”

“You can do with me whatever you want, Melissa, if is for you, I don’t mind to get hurt, I don’t mind to be broken apart,” The girl replies exasperated and nervous before the bandages cover her mouth, the angel steps back slowly when the clothing begins to darken.

“I wish you hadn’t said that, a heart like yours, doesn't deserve to go through this…” Melissa sighs, the body of the girl shakes abruptly from second to second; her muffled screams echoing in the grim room joined to other and unknown, multiple screams, the bandages on her face get stained with her tears, the veins on her skin turned both black and visible, almost as if she was getting poisoned, her limbs gangrened, before the sand clock on the hands of the angel will mark the end of that horrendous event, Chloe coughed blood and the bandages released her body, dropping her on the floor, “No, please… no more!” The young one begged while crying, unable to stand up and with her saliva full-on blood. “I told you, you don’t have what it takes, that what you felt, the things you saw and hear on those bandages, are all the sins humanity carries,” The angel explains furious, her voice filled with nothing but arrogance and hate, “If you can’t accept the world’s mistakes into your body, you can’t give birth to the apocalypse, pick up your things and leave this house, Chloe, for your own good, never look for me again.”

When a storm hits on the forest and the sky falls on the earth, the rain is loud enough to mute any other noise made from nature, loud enough even to silence the desperate knocks a woman did while crying over the door of a house inside a cave. “Melissa… Melissa!” The woman cried soaked from the rain, wearing a fancy yet now dirty and torn up suit, her lips trembled from the cold and her hands crawled scratching the door like a wounded beast, “I know you told me to never come back…!” She shouts with a hiccup, coughing frustrated and crying before continuing, “I know you told me I didn’t have what it takes!” She slams the door again, “I tried one more time, I wanted to believe in you, I studied hard and went to college, I tried to be a politician; I tried to change the world for the better!” Pausing once again, hurt from exhaustion and screaming so loud, coughing and slamming the door in a display of wrath, “But this world doesn’t have any hope left! I tried, I did! But no one listened to me, no one followed my ideas, they even tried to make me part of their corruption… Melissa! The world you want to protect no longer exists!”

A gentle light appears from one of the windows and gets brighter and closer, as fragments of yellow escape from the corners, the woman hears the steps of someone stopping behind the other side of the door. “Please… I did my best, for nine horrible and torturing years I did everything I could, trust in your words!” She coughs heartrending and loud, “The people you have hope for no longer exist; there are no more reasons to keep trying to save it… This world… This world needs to die!”

The door opens finally, slowly, giving sight of a young teen or red hair in a long white dress and veil holding on a candle, the woman crawled and cried, wrapping her arms around the young one’s legs, but the other just frowned. “The last step to bring the end, is to give up on your body, Chloe,” The angel coldly explains as the other looks at her confused, “Your blood needs to be stained, your soul must bear with all the sins this planet carries, then you’ll give your body for the birth of the apocalypse, and when it happens you will die, instantly as it sounds,” Melissa kneels and caresses her face, giving her a bittersweet smile, “Are you ready to toss your life away? Do you think there won’t be doubts; that your heart won’t wave at the last moment?”

Chloe stood silent still hanging on the skirt of the angel’s dress, gulped down saliva and started to calm down, “… I don’t need a world who wants to hurt me, I’ll do it,” The angel didn’t reply, she just caressed and fixed her hair, the girl leaned slightly and they shared a kiss, “You haven’t aged one bit… you look so precious, Melissa.”

“You have aged like a good wine if I can say,” The angel adds to the flirt, slowly cleaning her face, “You’re now a full proper adult, it's a shame the world overlooks on your beauty,” They kissed again, then Melissa helped her to stand up, finishing fixing her long black hair, “Will you die for me, Chloe?”

_“As many times you ask me to, Melissa.”_

For the woman months passed by, for the angel it felt like barely minutes, Chloe’s belly slowly grows every day and every night as they shared their lives in the house inside the cave. 275 days later the angel gently held Chloe in her arms, both inside the waters of the river near the entrance of the cave, her surroundings illuminated by candles in bronze sticks and burning incense, with them in the middle, almost like a ritual, the woman screamed her lungs out, helped by the angel to remove her clothes and sit with Melissa in the direction of the flow. “It feels horrible… it hurts! Melissa, it hurts so badly!” The woman cried and mourned feeling her insides being ripped off, the angel embraces her from behind, opening her wings from side to side stretching them as far as they could. The candles’ light raised like flames, the water’s flow stained in blood and a dark fluid, the birds screeched in fear, the flowers began to wilt, the trees fell one by one and an aggressive wind hit right over them. “Breath, my dear one, you’re doing great, I promise to be with you until the last moment.”

“Don’t let me go! Please don’t let me go!” Chloe cried in pain, her hands and nails piercing through the skin of the angel who kept holding on her with a smile, humming a song, the sun began to rise from the horizon, and the rays of light from the giant celestial began took a deep black color, turning the scene into a sepia picture, “Melissa…!” She cried inconsolably and utterly scared, “I’m feeling so cold… it feels so cold, is horrible, Melissa please do something!”

“My dear one, is only inevitable, just breath and smile for me, you’ve come this far, I promise at any minute now, you won’t feel anything,” The words of the angel were almost malicious, in that colorblind lights sitting on the river with now a pungent smell, for a moment back there Chloe saw those familiar yellow, reptile eyes on Melissa, for a moment there she remembered the shape once she had, her heart submerged in terror as a long and white centipede of the size of a Labrador came from inside her, screeching a deafening sound which paled the young woman.

“No… No! Melissa is horrible… that thing is horrible!” She cried more and more, drooling and kicking the water, trembling and feeling her energy fading away, “What have I done… Melissa what have I done?! I gave birth to a monster… that thing came out of me! No, no, no no!” She looked up to the angel, coughing in blood, saliva, snot, and tears, Melissa smiled once again, and gently kissed her forehead, hugging her head with tenderness.

“Breath, dear one, just as I feared, you doubted, just like I expected, at the very last moment, your heart waved, and you know what does that mean?” The angel kisses her forehead again and helped her to lean on her body; both of them looking at the centipede release a long screech and drop dead on the flow of the river, flattening and being taken away in the water.

Chloe looked at the scene with guilt, still feeling horrified and weak; she tried to clean her face and cried once again, clutching her legs, “I’m sorry… I’m sorry I failed you… I don’t want to die, even though I promised you to, I couldn’t do it, I’m so sorry.”

“On the contrary, my dear… no, my love,” Melissa corrects herself with a shake of her head, caressing the shivering woman who still was hurt, “You did exactly as I wanted, because as long as there are people like you, who will hang on their life even in the worst moment, even when it looks like there’s no salvation…” She hugs her tightly and kissed her on the lips, “As long as there are people like you, this world will continue being worthy of saving,” She finished with a smile, and with dexterity and a lot of strength, fluttering her winds as the sun went up with its usual yellow light, Melissa carried Chloe on her arms, “My love, would you like to live together with me?”

**Author's Note:**

> I picked up the names without looking, then later I found out Melissa was the name given for the nymphs nurses caretaking of Zeus when he was a baby, and Chloe is a Greek name which straight-up means "fertility", so I thought their names should stay like that, this was a fun short story to make, hope you liked it.


End file.
